The University of the Arts Libraries • Research Tools and Resources • Subject and Reference Guides

Photography Resources

Call numbers are for the Greenfield Library unless otherwise indicated. REF indicates the reference section.

Biographical Information
PHOTOGRAPHERS
PHOTOGRAPHERS--BIOGRAPHY
WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS--BIOGRAPHY

**Contemporary photographers. 3rd ed. / editor, Colin Naylor ; advisors, Ryszard Bobrowski ... [et al.] Chicago ; London : St. James, c1995.
REF 770.922 C7675 1995
Start here! If your photographer is included in this book you will get: a biographical outline that includes contact information; a bibliography of books and articles; a scholarly essay on that photographer and their importance; and perhaps even an artist's statement if the photographer chose to submit one.

Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography / John Hannavy, editor. New York : Routledge, 2008.
REF 770.903403 En19h v. 1-2
A great place to start research on any photo topic related to the 19th century. Entries include people, countries, and thematic topics such as camera design, tourist photography, self-portraiture, industrial photography, mountain photography, perspective, and much, much more. All major entries include a bibliography for further reading. For twentieth-century topics, see just below.

Encyclopedia of twentieth-century photography / Lynne Warren, editor. New York : Routledge, 2006.
REF 770.90403 En19w v. 1-3

Macmillan biographical encyclopedia of photographic artists & innovators / Turner Browne, Elaine Partnow. New York : Macmillan ; London : Collier Macmillan, c1983.
REF 770.922 B818m 1983
Nice source for historic information.

Willis-Thomas, Deborah. Black photographers, 1840-1940 : an illustrated bio-bibliography. New York : Garland, 1985.
REF 770.922 W679b

Willis-Thomas, Deborah. An illustrated bio-bibliography of black photographers, 1940-1988. New York : Garland, 1989.
REF 770.922 W679i

Terminology: dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.
PHOTOGRAPHY--DICTIONARIES
PHOTOGRAPHY--ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Baldwin, Gordon. Looking at photographs : a guide to technical terms. Malibu, CA : J. Paul Getty Museum in association with British Museum Press, 1991.
REF 770.3 B193L

Dictionary of photography and digital imaging : the essential reference for the modern photographer / Tom Ang. New York : Amphoto, 2002, c2001.
REF 770.3 An41d

ICP, International Center of Photography, encyclopedia of photography. 1st ed. New York : Crown, c1984.
REF 770.321 I005 1984

The Focal encyclopedia of photography / edited by Leslie Stroebel and Richard Zakia. 3rd ed. Boston : Focal Press, c1993.
REF 770.3 F681 1993
A classic in the field that every photographer should know about, Focal is a great authority on technical terms, past and present.

**The Focal encyclopedia of photography: digital imaging, theory and applications, history, and science / Michael R. Peres, editor-in-chief. 4th ed. Amsterdam; Boston: Elsevier/Focal Press, c2007.
REF 770.3 F681p 2007
Less an encyclopedia than a fabulous collection of scholarly and technical articles on the history and evolution of photography, major themes and photographers of the 20th century, digital photography, scientific photography, human vision, 20th century materials and processes, a timeline, and more. Certain sections include a glossary and/or bibliography for further reading. Includes some biographical material on major photographers. Consult the index for your topic.

McDarrah, Gloria, et al. The photography encyclopedia. New York : Schirmer Books, 1999.
REF 770.3 M459pe
Includes glossary, biographies, awards, museums, galleries, time line, and more.

Mora, Gilles. PhotoSpeak : a guide to the ideas, movements, and techniques of photography, 1839 to the present. 1st ed. New York : Abbeville Press Publishers, c1998.
REF 770.3 P566m 1998

Other
PHOTOGRAPHY--STUDY AND TEACHING--UNITED STATES--DIRECTORIES

Cohen, Stuart. Photographer's resource : the Watson-Guptill guide to workshops, conferences, artists' colonies, academic programs, digital imaging programs, on-the-road programs. New York : Watson-Guptill Publications, c1997.
REF 770.7152 C66p

It's also a very good idea to search for artists' names by KEYWORD. Keyword searches in the Author field, the Subject field, and in the Contents field, which includes elements such as titles of chapters. When searching by Keyword you can type FIRST NAME FIRST. To be more precise, put quotation marks around it to specify a phrase, e.g., "ansel adams".

And don't forget - you will find more articles about individual photographers, especially contemporary photographers, by searching periodical indexes for magazine articles.

SEARCHING THE CATALOG BY SUBJECT
Use the University Libraries catalog to find books, videos, CDs, scores, journal titles, etc. To locate all of the materials the library holds on a topic, it is most efficient to search by Subject. Use the following subject headings in the online catalog. These subject headings are standard and are used in most libraries.

35MM CAMERAS ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHY AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AFRICAN-AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHERS ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY CAMERAS CAMERAS--HISTORY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY COMPOSITION (PHOTOGRAPHY) COPYRIGHT--PHOTOGRAPHS DAGUERREOTYPE DIGITAL CAMERAS DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY ELECTRONOGRAPHY FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHY IMAGE PROCESSING IMAGE PROCESSING--DIGITAL TECHNIQUES IMAGES, PHOTOGRAPHIC INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY INSTANT PHOTOGRAPHY LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY MACROPHOTOGRAPHY MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY NIKON CAMERA PAINTING FROM PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOCOLLAGE PHOTOGRAMS PHOTOGRAPHERS PHOTOGRAPHERS--BIOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPHS--COLORING PHOTOGRAPHY, ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY, ARTISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY, CLOSE-UP PHOTOGRAPHY--DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPERS

PHOTOGRAPHY--DICTIONARIES PHOTOGRAPHY--DIGITAL TECHNIQUES PHOTOGRAPHY--EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES PHOTOGRAPHY, EROTIC PHOTOGRAPHY--EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY--HANDBOOKS, MANUALS, ETC. PHOTOGRAPHY, HANDWORKED PHOTOGRAPHY, HIGH-SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY--HISTORY PHOTOGRAPHY, INDUSTRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY--LIGHTING PHOTOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS PHOTOGRAPHY OF ART PHOTOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN PHOTOGRAPHY OF INTERIORS PHOTOGRAPHY OF MEN PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE NUDE PHOTOGRAPHY OF WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHY--PERIODICALS PHOTOGRAPHY, PINHOLE PHOTOGRAPHY--PHILOSOPHY PHOTOGRAPHY--PRINTING PROCESSES PHOTOGRAPHY--SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS PHOTOGRAPHY--SPECIAL EFFECTS PHOTOGRAPHY--STUDIOS AND DARK ROOMS PHOTOGRAPHY, TABLE-TOP PHOTOGRAPHY--UNITED STATES--HISTORY PHOTOJOURNALISM PHOTOMECHANICAL PROCESSES PHOTOMONTAGE POLAROID LAND CAMERA ROLLEIFLEX CAMERA PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY SLIDES (PHOTOGRAPHY) STILL-LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY TINTYPE TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY TRICK PHOTOGRAPHY VIEW CAMERAS WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS ZONE SYSTEM (PHOTOGRAPHY)

PERIODICAL INDEXES: FINDING MAGAZINE ARTICLES

Magazine and journal articles will always be the best place to look for current information on your topic. Periodical indexes are research tools that allow you to search for articles in journals and magazines.

Access to the Periodical Indexes and Databases
Go to the library's Research Tools and Resources page for descriptions of Web-based periodical index subscriptions (please note that if you are off-campus you will be prompted to log in with your name and library barcode number).

I've found citations to articles I want to read. Now what?
There are different ways to find an article once you pull up a citation in the index:

• See if there is a link in the index you're using to a full-text article online and download it or e-mail it to yourself.
• Check to see if our library holds the journal title. Look up the journal title or the ISSN*** in the catalog and look at the holdings.
  
  • ***What is an ISSN? ISSN stands for International Standard Serial Number and is a unique number for a magazine or journal (not individual articles, but the magazine/journal title itself). You can use it in the UArts Libraries catalog and in many periodical indexes and databases. Searching with a number is much more precise than typing out a long title.
• See what other libraries in the area hold the journal.
• Use interlibrary loan to request materials not owned by the UArts Libraries.

STYLE MANUALS: CITING YOUR SOURCES

PHOTOGRAPHY SITES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Searching the Web can be overwhelming. If you are using the Internet for research you want to choose sites that meet the standards of accuracy, currency and authority.

American Photography: A Century of Images
http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/
A public television production from KTCA/Twin Cities Public Television, "American Photography captures the images of a century of change and the role the camera has played both in creating and documenting it. Dramatic and intimate stories trace photography's profound effect on American life ‹ influencing what we buy, how we dress, how we get the news, and in matters of life and death, medicine, science and war."--quote taken from "More About the Film". See also the companion book.

America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1864
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/daghtml/daghome.html
Part of the American Memory Web site from the Library of Congress. Just one of many collections within the site. Use the search box on the American Memory home page to find others.

Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://lii.org/
This is always a good place to start any kind of Internet research. Type in your search topic, or select Arts & Humanities from the subject menu then click Photography. Links to sites ranging from America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerrotype Portraits and Views 1839-1864 to Digital Photo Review.

American Museum of Photography
http://www.photographymuseum.com/

Photo Study Collection Database from the Getty
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/photo_study_collection/

Smithsonian Photography Initiative
http://photography.si.edu/default.aspx
Out of the Smithsonian's approximate 13 million photographs, about 1,800 have been selected to launch their new Web site. Be sure to read their section on copyright and fair use: http://www.si.edu/copyright/. Interesting fact: the Web producer for this site is UArts Master of Industrial Design graduate Effie Kapsalis! See credits.

Society for Photographic Education
http://www.spenational.org/
"The Society for Photographic Education is a non-profit membership organization that provides a forum for the discussion of photography-related media as a means of creative expression and cultural insight. Through its interdisciplinary programs, services and publications, the society seeks to promote a broader understanding of the medium in all its forms, and to foster the development of its practice, teaching, scholarship and criticism." - from the home page.

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Send questions or remarks about this page to Sara J. MacDonald, SMacDonald@uarts.edu, Public Services Librarian.
Last updated 07 March 2008 sjm

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